Bid Whist

Bid Whist is a four-handed partnership trick-taking game. One side names a contract — a number of books over six, and a direction — then tries to make it. Only the declaring side's score changes. The other side wins by setting them.

Four seats, two fixed partnerships, partners opposite:

North deals the first hand. The deal then passes to the left.

54 cards: a standard 52-card deck, plus a Big Joker and a Little Joker. They are different cards. The Big Joker outranks the Little Joker.

Each seat is dealt 12 cards. The remaining 6 are a face-down kitty. Nobody sees the kitty, including the dealer, until a contract is won.

Two orders, and ace is high in both.

One round of bidding, starting with the seat left of the dealer and going left. Each seat bids or passes, once.

A bid is a number from 3 to 7 (books you promise above the book of six) and a direction: uptown, downtown, or no-trump.

The minimum bid is 3. It is not a table option.

By default the dealer must bid at least 3. Pass is not offered.

The table may instead play redeal: the dealer may pass too, the hand is thrown in, and the deal passes left.

The high bidder is the declarer. They pick up the kitty (18 cards) and bury exactly 6, face down, any cards, including jokers. Those six are the declaring side's first book. Only the declarer can see them. Their partner cannot.

Then the declarer names the rest of the contract:

The declarer leads. Twelve tricks follow. The winner of a trick leads the next. Play the hand out even when the contract is already made or already set.

Follow the led suit when you can.

Jokers belong to trump. The order is:

Leading a joker leads trump. Everyone who holds a trump or a joker must play one.

Jokers are powerless. They never win a trick against a suited card.

By default a joker may be played at any time, even when you can follow suit. The table may instead require follow first: a joker is legal only when you cannot follow, or when you are leading.

A joker led in no-trump establishes no suit. The first suited card played to that trick sets the suit everyone else must follow. If a no-trump trick were ever nothing but jokers — it cannot happen in a real four-seat trick, which has four cards and only two jokers — the leader would take it, so the hand can continue. A joker still never beats a suited card.

The declaring side's books are the kitty (1) plus the tricks that side won. Twelve tricks, so the books in a hand total 13.

No-trump doubles both the make and the set, unless the table chose single scoring.

Taking all 13 books is a Boston. A bid of 7 that is made is a Boston, because 7 promises every book.

By default a Boston wins the game immediately, including when the table is playing to 21, and including from a deficit.

The table may instead score a Boston as a flat +14, which is not doubled in no-trump. The hand then continues unless that score also crosses the target.

The declaring side wins at +target and loses at −target. The default target is 7 (lose at −7). The table may play to 21 (lose at −21).

Only one side's score moves, so the game cannot draw. When the declaring side falls to minus the target, the other partnership wins.

The scoreboard shows the contract, the books each side has, how many books the contract still needs, and which house rules this table locked in.